Insider Perspectives on the Key Moments in

self advocacy.

Reinforce Self Advocacy History group and academic partners: Chris Bigby (LaTrobe University), Paul Ramcharan (RMIT) & Patsie Frawley (LaTrobe University)

ASID conference 2011

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Timeline

1977 Started meeting up at Middle Park Social Club

1980 – 1981 Camps at Inverloch and Lancefield bring people together from across State

Became known as Force 10

1981 Organised and ran the 5th Strand of the Intellectual Disability conference;

Code of Rights presented to Senator Fred Chaney

1982 Drummond St Squat

1984 People First Conference in Washington

1986 - 1987 People First Victoria & National Self Advocacy Resource Unit

1987 Reinforce Incorporated; Raising our voices on Radio 3CR

1988 Self Advocates from across Australia meet at State Film Centre

Melbourne ; Victorian advocacy and self advocacy groups hold Housing

Conference

1992 Protesting to close Caloola

1995 Funding stops from State Government

1996 „Plain English Less Jargon‟

1998 Reinforce member goes to People First Conference Alaska

2000 Spreading the Word project begins

2001 Project worker steals money from Spreading the Word Project

2006 25th anniversary AGM held

2008 Self Advocacy Reunion held at Story Hall RMIT with guest speakers Dorothy

Atkinson and Mabel Cooper from the UK; Patricia O‟Brien and Errol Cocks

Middle Park Social Club

“Middle Park was a beautiful drop in place....it

was a social club.... that is when we really,

really got together as a group”

“Why don‟t we just get people away, and

start workshopping, put these ideas up?”

(Supporter) “Well let‟s have a camp where

people can talk, let‟s sort of do it that way”

(Supporter)

The one I can recall was

Lancefield..eighty people were

at that camp and they wanted

something to happen for

people with an intellectual

disability so they said “we‟ll

form a group” (Des McIntosh,

self advocate)

“Well the one we had at Inverloch we

called Fungress because part of it

was going to be work , and the rest

of it was going to be fun” (Self

Advocate)

You‟d sit in a

group.. you may or

may not

participate, that

was fine

(Supporter)

“When I was looking at the names of people who were

supporting people at Middle Park, and thinking about their

politics and the things that they were interested in, it‟s no

wonder that Middle Park moved from a social group to

[being] interested in self advocacy and or even had words

like Reinforce being a union in the first years” (Supporter)

“I am a strong unionist and so was

[other supporter] so we thought....let‟s

talk about this as being a movement of

solidarity and to call it a union made

people stand up and listen because

unions were strong at that time”

(Supporter)

Eddy [self advocate]was pretty involved with,

on the periphery of the union at, at Carlton

United, or knew about unions, and I remember

talking to him about like if you‟re being bullied

or anything like that, we‟ve got this sort of stuff

[a union] (Support worker).

“They called the group Force 10

which was meant to be more

powerful than an earthquake”

(Des McIntosh, past president

of Reinforce)

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If we don‟t start to do something now no-one will,

so we start with this conference and from there

we will have others and we will keep having more

until such time as they realise we are human and

we do get our rights because until then we are

nothing” (Self advocate 5th Strand conference,

1981)

“We took a petition on our

rights that we want” (This code

of rights was presented to

Senator Fred Chaney at the

conference)

This is the first time at a national

conference on retardation that

retarded people, intellectually

handicapped people have got a

chance to have a say to tell the

service providers, the

professionals ....the needs that

they have....they are making some

pretty strong demands” (Video of

5th Strand Conference, 1981)

I went to the conference, we

all wrote out, what we wanted

to say, you know like how

bad it was, how badly treated

we were, how we weren‟t

heard, how people didn‟t take

us seriously (Self Advocate)

“We were radical

then” (David

Banfield -Self

Advocate)

“You‟ve got to be strong, you‟ve got to be powerful, you‟ve got to show

right… you‟ve got to think: “Right, we‟ve had enough, we‟ve got to be

seriously strong about this and forceful” (Past self advocate)

You”

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I can remember the last video I made was the

“Plain English, Less Jargon”.... you think of all

the videos I made well you‟d be there all day ...

Oh I had, heaps of different videos, on the

disabilities, yes.... mainly because of my, my

expertise, with films... I always used to come

up with and different ideas (Doug Pentland)

We promote people‟s rights, we sit on various

government committees making sure there is

not too much jargon floating around. ...It must

be jargon free language so people can

understand it. (Des McIntosh speaking about

what Reinforce did in the 1990‟s)

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It was very difficult keeping our doors open..we nearly

came to the crunch to where we had to shut our

doors, I don‟t know how we did it..it was as I said, just

to pay the rent, just to keep our doors open, it was

unbelievable, but we did it… we did it, and I feel so

proud, I‟m proud of all of us. (Julie Cooper, past self

advocate)

Yes, every time we put in a submission, it always seemed

to go to [other organisation], and we were always

concerned that they must have a link with the Department

somewhere, because all the funding seemed to go to

[other organisation], and not self advocacy groups, and

there was a lot of confusion about that time, they should

mix up the money but not, but all of it went to [other

organisation. (Janice Slattery, Self Advocate)

On a shoe-string budget. We had

to scrimp and save as much as we

could. We had to stop going to

conferences for a while. Basically

we had to stop paying people‟s

travel fees like we used to do.

Because we just couldn‟t afford it.

Yeah a lot of people [stopped

coming]. They just went their own

way. Some went to sheltered

workshop. Things like that. (David

Banfield – Self Advocate)

25th Anniversary AGM

2005

Reunion at Storey Hall

RMIT November 2008

Hosted Self advocacy stream

at ASSID national conference

2009

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I enjoyed my time there, with Reinforce, although it did have its up and, ups and downs and disagreements,

I’d like to put that first. I had a lot of health problems that affected me in the long run. When I think about all

the work I’ve done in the past, how I helped other disabled people to become what they are now, I really put them on the

map, and the road, and they can follow on the way that I’ve left off, they can follow the road and the same map

(Doug Pentland)

Janice Julie was the one who started the news letter, going....

That‟s right, because it hadn‟t been going for a long time.

Mm, so I started it off. Janice: And since, Julie started the news letter, I‟ve kept it up.

JC: And even now, I‟m enjoying, doing my editorial, I‟m enjoying a lot, of it, that‟s why I don‟t like to give it up,

because it‟s my baby (laugh), and I enjoy doing it.

JC: That‟s good.

Norrie: And now we‟re putting, now the newsletter‟s still going, we‟re even putting photographs in them.

JC: Yes, that‟s fantastic.

Janice: Yes, yes.

JC: I‟m glad you‟re still going on with it, that‟s fantastic, that‟s good, yes.

“It was very important, about what they [Reinforce]

were doing, there was a lot of good things they had

been involved in over the time”. Reinforce had its

up and downs, ups and downs, but in the main it

was able to do things, with and without support, to

do things they believed in themselves, as well as

others.” (Doug Pentland)

Reinforce means we reinforce

the issues that come our way

(Des McIntosh)